The Exchange
by KaelinMoshroca
Summary: After a seemingly unexpected reset, someone has a bone to pick with Frisk. Please note this oneshot can be read as a continuation of Lost or read on its own.


A/N - Hello everyone! This one-shot can be read as a continuation of Lost or read on its own. Please enjoy!

White pinpricks of light traveled the length of his room, searching for whatever felt off all of a sudden. Sans had been lazing around on his bed, watching his pet rock taking a spin in the swirling vortex when something close to a full body twitch had occurred. That, normally, meant nothing good for him at all. His perma-smile fell slightly, eyes darkening as he pulled himself from the bed and taking a quick shortcut down to his lab. It normally meant a reset after all.

He quickly scanned the notes, knowing his brother would soon be along to nag him about his patrol and puzzles. Sure enough, more information was there than before. Meaning that he had already done everything he was about to do, again. What confused the short skeleton the most however, was the fact that nothing seemed to have been wrong in the past timeline. There was no side notes of anything interesting. The human had come, befriended everyone, and continued on, befriending even more. There was no reason behind this reset, nothing bad had happened. Finger's clenched tightly around the papers, wrinkling them into quite the mess before he was back in his room.

There had to be something that happened right? The kid wouldn't just reset for the fun of resetting. The idea alone had blue flames leaking from his head. Toying with time just because they could. It was a sickening thought.

It wasn't long before the day continued as normal, or as normal as a snowy cold day standing among trees could get. He let himself doze off, trying to forget about earlier. They didn't want to deal with it right now and in all honesty, they couldn't. The kid wasn't here yet and pulling the thought back and forth across his mind did little to ease the skeleton into a restful sleep. He wasn't even able to doze long before noise was heard from inside the ruins. Seemed like the kid was a little...early? Normally he could get another hour or two of sleep before needing to be ready. He shrugged it off though, who knows what had happened in there.

Introductions went the same as always. Freak the kid out with snapping the branch, freezing them in place with his magic so he could creep up behind them and spin them around. It was the whoopee cushion that seemed to be where things would be different here. Frisk laughed. They had always at least giggled but this time the kid gave a loud happy laugh, smiling brightly up at the skeleton who's grin seemed to grow a little larger across his skull. "A humerus human. Well kid a got a skele-ton more where that came from." He gave the kid a wink before ushering them off behind that conveniently shaped lamp.

He could hear the kid giggle every now and again, more so when he pointed the lamp out to Papyrus only to have his brother ignore him. It wasn't long before the human jumped out when his bro had left and on they continued. Sans watched with close eyes as the kid spared every monster they came across, that happy smile never leaving the human's face. Though Sans noticed they seemed fluid in the fights. They knew just want to say to make the monsters warm up to the small human and rarely did a fight seem to last for more than two turns. It brought up to the front of Sans mind that this was a reset. However, even he could see that the kid was quite a bit different. More, relaxed and at ease with everything going on around. He could remember flashes of the last timeline, where a more stiff Frisk was walking. One that was wary of every encounter and flinched at small movements that seemed to caused pain. Sans grin seemed to turn down at the edges and again he found himself in his lab, reading over his notes. It just wasn't adding up in his head.

It wasn't until later that Sans could take it no more. His snickers subsided, watching as the kid rubbed the reddish color paint off of their face, giving Sans a huffy look that hid an amused undertone too it. "Hey kid, I gotta problem I've been rattling about. Wanna help me out?" He had walked closer to the kid, watching as Frisk nodded. "Great! Lets go someplace we can talk. Might take a while ya know?" He wasn't sure just where he was gonna take them, but it seemed like Frisk had an idea of where to go. They had grabbed his hand with a little hesitation before lightly pulling him along. It was a little bit of a walk to get to the place. An area behind some long grass, far from echo flowers and the main pathway through Waterfall. He scanned the area before nodding and taking a seat on the ground with a plop, watching as the human pulled off their shoes and socks, dipping feet into the water.

"So, I've never been one to beat about the bush too much here. So I'll be straight with you kid. I've been going over my notes the last few days and nothing has turned up. Not a single bad thing happened. So why the reset kid? You feel like you can play with time just because you can or do you want to try and explain to me why we started a happy life over again?" The lights in his eyes had disappeared by this time, leaving his skull empty and hollow, showing the growing rage he had felt.

Frisk had turned to look at the skeleton then, studying the friend they had made again. Only, maybe this time it was just the human that felt like that. He seemed rather irritated after all, not that Frisk could blame him. They turned eyes away, not wanting to see his face. "What makes you think it was happy?" The human spoke softly, fingers clenching around the grass currently under them.

"Whadaya mean? It was going fine, everyone was alive and you were heading to the castle with no problems. Alphys was even helping you along from what Pap had told me. So why the reset? It don't make sense kid." Glowing blue flicked to life a few times as anger mounted inside the smaller skeleton. But the soft words spoken next killed mostly everything, leaving him cold.

"Do you know what it feels like to die?" Frisk opened their eyes slowly, turning to look at Sans as they laid down among the grass. "Every time I died, it wasn't as simple as you think a LOAD would be. Them last few seconds before I truly LOAD...they are agony. Agony that sometimes carry over, phantom pains of what used to be." Frisk turned attention up to the ceiling of the cavern, watching the glows from above. "I think burning to death was the worst. It didn't help that Toriel's pain caused me even more. She thought I would move out of the way I guess. I don't even want to think about how much pain I was in, how much death I had faced, just within the ruins. I was beaten to death, the ache from bruises long gone stayed with me easily into Snowdin. I think it was the same pain at least. They all stacked, all blurred together after a while. I...wasn't very fast it seemed." The human sent a small smile over to Sans but he wasn't smiling, the tiny pricks of light pinned to Frisk's face as he listened in growing horror and alarm.

"Snowdin's area was a bit different. Freezing to death is a bit odd because it takes a while for feeling to come back properly. Getting sliced by a knife was a little more stinging than I had hoped. Beheading from giant axes...not an experience I want to share." Frisk spoke softly, recounting all the death, all the pain they had gone through. All the while, Sans listened, not understanding how calm Frisk was being about all of this, but then again, they had lived the nightmares before. Fingers curled deep into the ground, his prick of light disappearing. Where had he been? He had promised to keep the human safe, to keep an eyesocket out for them but apparently he hadn't done too good a job at it. And yet, here the kid was, talking quietly to him, befriending him once again after everything that had happened. He felt useless.

"It took just one more death, before it became to much and I snapped I guess. Not much for a happy life huh?" The words caught Sans' attention.

"Snapped?" Even without the light to show his focus, Frisk knew that they had Sans full attention once again. Though he seemed to ignore the little jab at how happy everyone's lives had been going.

"I was tired, and sore, and sick of it all. It seemed like everything wanted me dead. So I thought, why not do what they wanted?" Frisk gave a small smile that chilled Sans to the bone. "I came here you know. This spot even. Because I figured if I was going to die than I wanted it to be in a pretty place. And it is always so calm here." And indeed it was calm there. The soft hue of blue along with the sound of water and the comfortable tempurature that sat between the cold of Snowdin and the heat of Hotland. It had been perfect. Their eyes scanned the glowing blue water, looking for the rock that had kept the human company when they had done it. "Drowning was not really pleasant either...But still better than burning I guess."

Frisk wrapped their arm's around themselves, eyes seeing a past that Sans desperately didn't want to think about. The burning in their chest, the darkness that had taken over when air could no longer reach their lungs, it was another death that Frisk had nightmares over. "I think the emotional toll broke my save. Or maybe my determination not to go back to more pain forced the reset. All I remember is that it was my only option. One I was willing to take at that point in time." Frisk took a shaky breath. This was the most they had talked in ages, and although it felt nice to get all this off their chest, it was much more taxing than the child had first thought. It was comforting though and as they turned back to Sans with a small smile they found themselves being wrapped into a hug, blue fabric taking over their vision.

"Oh god kid. I'm so sorry. I must have lost my brain, lost my eyes. I promised to protect you but it sounds like I wasn't doing a damn good job at it." Soft blue tears dripped down from the skull's eye sockets as Sans held Frisk close, bony fingers curling into the child's hair and sweater. "I never even noticed. Sure you were sore and stiff but you always smiled, always seemed happy. And here I am, mad that you reset such a happy time." He shook his head, causing more tears to fall down as his grip tightened. The word happy held such a bitter bite to it at the moment.

"It's okay Sans. I was LOADING and SAVING so often that you probably didn't even notice the twitches." Frisk buried their head deeper into the hoodie, taking in the comforting scent of grease and bones. "And I'm so much happier now. This run has been so much fun. I'm able to enjoy things that I wasn't able to do before. I enjoy the puzzles, and I enjoy meeting monsters that become my friends. And I was able to meet this really cool skeleton that tells some pretty horrid jokes at times but he seems pretty sweet." Frisk smiled as they looked up, wiping away tears that continued to fall from the skull. "And well, now you know. Now you can do an even better job and keep _two_ eyesockets out for me, right?"

A chuckle escaped the skeleton as he placed his teeth against the kid's forehead, giving as close to a kiss as a skull could. "Yeah kid. All the problems you make, I should be keeping two sockets on you. And Lets make sure _everyone_ gets a happy ending this time."


End file.
